lessons learned fromheat treating with fire, not those fancy heat guns

[BOWMAN53]

Things i learned from fire heat treating: its hard lol. Its hard as hell to evenly heat the whole limb. Hickory scrap wood makes for horrible coals,  because they burn too quickly. Cedar makes good coal. Its time consuming and it sure does test you patiences. You need the flames to just barely lick the limb not just the heat from coals (wasted a good 40mins of figuring that out).

[PEARL DRUMS]

I like my heat gun. High or low is all I worry about.

[BOWMAN53]

Lol well i can say that this will be my first and last time lol.

[ionicmuffin]

im with you on using heat guns, they apply even heat and they are portable lol. I will say though that i plan on making an ALL primitive bow someday, one where i use only stones and stuff like that to create the bow, and sinew for the string, and all primitive arrows. If i do heat treat it or do heat bending i will  have to use a fire because thats how it would have been done. so basically i will be put to the test in doing that.i might do it next year or the year after.

[soy]

HHB, and Osage, with a touch of red Elm... that is a recipe for a good Cole  bed that provides a good heat source to work the wood with it does require more patience than a heat gun.

[PEARL DRUMS]

HHB, and Osage, with a touch of red Elm... that is a recipe for a good Cole  bed that provides a good heat source to work the wood with it does require more patience than a heat gun.

Dont you ever use the "P" word around me again Soybert!

[Ozzy]

Lol 

[okie64]

Ive done it both ways and definitely prefer the heat gun and a caul. If u ever decide to try it again try red oak.

[Marc St Louis]

I've heat-treated many times over a fire and coals is THE way to go.  Flames work well enough but a good bed of hardwood coals does a fine job.

[BOWMAN53]

Marc, what kind of wood did you use?

[Marc St Louis]

For a fire or for heat-treating?

[dwardo]

I imagine half the battle would be trying to get a good established fire going to create a deep heat in a short amount of time.
I find a good fire out in the woods takes at least a good few hours to "bed in" Not something that can be rushed.
Thats why the heat gun rules I suppose.

[Buckeye Guy]

That's right burn that inferior Osage it makes a good fire !
Otherwise get some white oak scraps it will make coals faster and last longer than most other woods !
Have fun !
Guy

[Zion]

I think the best way to get a good heat treatment into a bow (without a gun)  is to put it by really hot coals, flames aren't as effective, they mostly just scorch the surface. If the coals'r hot enough the wood'll brown within seconds.

[Carson (CMB)]

Don't give up Bowman.  Like Marc said, it is THE way to go.  That was my feeling after heat-treating one bow.  Nice to see Marc feels the same way, as he knows a thing or two about heat-treating.  I used doug-fir for the coals.  They burn hot but not nearly as long as most hardwoods.  It still worked great.  I also used a fire pit that is big enough to treat one whole limb at a time.  It might take a little time to get a good bed of coals, but once you have them it only takes 5-10 mins to do a limb.       http://echoarchery.blogspot.com/